It's not all his fault!

The disturbing images of Kenyans live in penury from our Northern Frontier beamed to our living rooms continue to shock and dismay. Looking at the fraught images flickering on our TV screens, the question of whether there are two Kenyas still resonates with the urban elite in their secure cocoons far from the strife and suffering. And as we keep asking ourselves how this can be, the families described as pastoralists continue to suffer from food shortages, poor healthcare services, water shortages and the ever present danger of marauding raiders from Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia. Mwai Kibaki's government has been accused by the chattering classes of not caring for the people of Northern Kenya, this narrative being buttressed by these distressing images. The poor human development conditions in the North would seem to confirm this view. But, is it true?

The government Mwai Kibaki inherited in 2003 was bankrupt, financially, administratively and morally. President Moi chose the 2005 referendum campaign to pay his first visit to Northern Kenya, having ignored it and its residents in his 24 years in power. Those recalling his robust responses to security issues seem to forget that Kenya under his rule was a police state in all but name, with the imprimatur of the Commander-in-Chef writ large over the lives of all Kenyans, whether they received public goods or not. The police action that took place against the Degodia clan in Wagalla in 1984 was an example of how muscularly Moi's government would respond to perceived security threats. The public officers who served during that time and whose names have been linked to that massacre sweating in front of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission would be the first to admit that the Moi regime had other things in mind other than the human development of the peoples of Northern Kenya. Mwai Kibaki I (2003 - 2007) and the Grand Coalition Government (2008 - ), to their credit, have not turned a blind eye to the suffering in the Northern regions of Kenya; it is in prioritising development in other areas of the country that they have created the impression that Northern Kenya is not a priority.

Commentators seem to gloss over the fact that certain ecological developments have exacerbated the problems in Northern Kenya, especially the vagaries of climate change and biodiversity loss. As a result, resource-based conflicts, especially with regard to pasture lands and water, have sharply increased over the decade that Mwai Kibaki has been in power. The marauding Merille of Ethiopia, in addition to satisfying some of their more atavistic traditions, invade Kenyan territory in search of food, water and pasture. Their raids are not a testament to Mwai Kibaki's lackadaisical approach to the security of the peoples of Northern Kenya but a recognition of the fact that Kenya is a major player in the East African Community and that its responses must always be measured and well-reasoned. Any war with our neighbours would not only jeopardise our commercial interests in the region, it would set us back fifty years in terms of economic and political development. Nations at war, especially African nations, tend to lose their best and brightest to the war, impose military dictatorships on the people and ostracise the nation from the global community. Those calling for a muscular military response do not appreciate the delicate place Kenya finds itself, especially at this time of transition.

Major public works developments are taking place in Northern Kenya. The Great North Road to Ethiopia will do more to resolve the conflict between the Turkana and the Merille than fifty battalions of GSU and Kenya Police Reserves. Major dams have been commissioned intended to address the chronic water shortages of the region. Security concerns are being addressed in a multi-pronged approach, including the deployment of personnel and the use of diplomacy to co-opt the co-operation of the governments to our north. It is in the social development area that the government could do more: build more hospitals and schools to ensure that the people of Northern Kenya are not held hostage to culture and tradition that are slowly being overtaken by modernity. Any argument that posits that Mwai Kibaki does not care for the people of Northern Kenya is a bald-faced lie!